1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an Infant Nurturing Device used for performing parent-infant “Kangaroo Care” attachment in the absence of biological parents. Specifically, the present invention relates to an Infant Nurturing Device capable of performing parent-infant attachment by transferring simulated parental body temperature, simulated parental heartbeat, simulated parental voice and simulated parental breathing in the absence of biological parents.
2. Description of Related Prior Art
The birth of a newborn child, a full-term infant or a pre-term infant can be an exciting time in the lives of parents and relatives. Enhanced parent-infant attachment or bonding is crucial for continuous and successful development of a newborn infant, especially in the case of a pre-term infant. Child development research has directed some attention towards the importance of parent-infant attachment during the early stages of infancy. Research has shown that newborns, including pre-term infants, have a uniquely innate form of interaction and attachment with their parents early on in their developmental process. That is, attachment between a newborn infant and the infant's parent, especially the infant's mother, provides essential emotional and psychological needs required for orderly infant development and maturity.
In the past, the importance of an infant's emotional and psychological needs through parent-infant attachment was not fully understood in the medical profession and thus not well documented. Such level of ignorance has since changed, as contemporary child development research has gradually established the importance of a parent's, such as a mother's, voice, heartbeat, breathing and body temperature to the early development of a new-born infant. Contemporary research has also established that an infant recognizes his or her birth mother through the mother's scent, voice and heartbeat, etc., and is thus capable of noticing the presence or absence of the mother.
The absence of an infant's mother affects the infant's security, drastically shakes the infant's confidence, and often has an adverse effect on the orderly development of the infant. In contrast, when an infant's mother is present, the infant benefits from the warmth of the mother's body temperature, the soothing tone of the mother's voice and the rhythm of both the mother's heartbeat and breathing. Thus, it is well established that parent-infant attachment is necessary for fulfilling the emotional and psychological needs, and for the orderly development of a newborn infant. The attachment phenomenon, which promotes emotional, psychological and orderly development of an infant is even more important and pronounce when dealing with premature infants. As is well known, the birth of a premature infant places enormous stress and difficulties on parents and supportive relatives. It is not uncommon for a mother to feel extremely helpless and often depress when repeatedly confronted with challenges and complexity associated with premature infants. Although advances in technology have played a significant part in the survival rate of premature infants, research has shown that skin-to-skin attachment between a parent, for example, a mother, and a premature infant contributes significantly to the survival rate of the infant. Thus, along with technology advances, the medical profession has incorporated the parent-infant attachment procedure in its overall developmental therapy for full and pre-term newborn infants.
The technique used by parents, especially mothers, in performing the parent-infant attachment procedure is widely known in medical circles as “Kangaroo Care”. Performance of the “Kangaroo Care” approach, which is often required of mothers for orderly development of infants, is applicable to both full and pre-term infants. The “Kangaroo Care” approach is so-named because the infant is positioned upright and close to a parent's chest to simulate a baby Kangaroo in its mother's pouch. “Kangaroo Care” is reported to have first begun in Columbia, South America and was initiated by Doctors Martinez and Rey, whose decisions to use this approach was based on the absence of adequate medical equipment and the increased risks of infection from unsanitized hospital conditions. Hence, mothers were encouraged to transport their pre-term infants from hospitals between their breasts, while feeding the infants with breast milk.
Susan Lugdinton, author of “Kangaroo Care: The Best You Can Do For Pre-term Baby”, has proven through extensive research that the “Kangaroo Care” approach has been extremely successful when applied to premature infants. Her research with pre-term infants revealed that intimate cuddling stabilizes heart rate and breathing, conserves an infant's energy and increases milk production in new mothers. Lugdinton research also revealed that the “Kangaroo Care” approach drastically reduces or even prevents Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), frequently associated with infants, especially newborn pre-term babies, whom often experience difficulties with coordinating their heart rates with their breathing. Lugdinton also credits “Kangaroo Care” for drastically reducing episodes of apnea in premature infants. In a specific study conducted by Lugdinton at the Massachusetts General Hospital, of the nineteen thousand infants observed, nine infants who showed sign of “less coordinated coupling” died of SIDS. Lugdinton also established a nexus between “Kangaroo Care” attachment and brain development in infants. As an example, after only ten minutes of close contact with parents thirty-week old premature infants experienced an increase in brain cells fusion called neuro synapes. Along with Lugdinton, numerous researches have shown the importance of the “Kangaroo Care” attachment to the overall emotional and psychological development of full-term and pre-term infants.
The current practice of “Kangaroo Care” attachment by the medical profession, which is defined as the practice of pouching an infant, diaper-clad and blanketed, against a parent's bear chest, requires sessions of up to four hours of placing an infant between the breasts of the mother. The attachment sessions create the requisite attachment for enhancing emotional and psychological infant development through exposures to parental heartbeat, parental body temperature, parental breathing rhythm and parental voice recognition. The current “Kangaroo Care” approach requiring the placement of an infant between the breast of a parent to increase emotional and psychological development is extremely limited in at least the following respects: enormous time constraints are placed on parents, especially professional parents, performing “Kangaroo Care” attachment; inadequate parent-to-infant heat transfer and reduced exposure to parental heartbeat rhythm, body temperature and voice due to insufficient time spent between parents and infants; and increase in overall hospital and patient cost. These limitations do not permit full or pre-term infants to receive the adequate emotional and psychological attachment to spur orderly development. For example, reductions in parent-to-infant temperature transfer, parent-to-infant voice transfer and parent-to-infant rhythmic heartbeat transfer has been shown to increase breathing pauses and apnea in infants, decrease infants' oxygen level and often increase the number of slow heart rate spells in infants.
Thus, it would be advantageous to develop a device that is capable of performing parent-infant attachment using the “Kangaroo Care” approach in the absence of biological parents while serving the crucial function of developing full or pre-term infants by creating a sense of security. It would also be advantageous to have a device capable of eliminating time constraints placed on parents performing “Kangaroo Care” attachment, a device capable of transferring simulated parental heart beat rhythm, a device capable of transferring simulated parental body temperature, a device capable of transferring simulated parental voice and a device capable of transferring simulated parental breathing. The Infant Nurturing System Device, “Edith, A Mother in Absentia”, of the present invention is capable of providing all the above-listed advantages, which are indeed inextricably linked to the orderly, early-stage development of full and pre-term infants.